


Sunrise

by Origamidragons



Category: One Piece
Genre: Chance Meetings, Gen, Pre-Time Skip, and a lot of things in common, i feel like these girls have a lot of things to talk about
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Origamidragons/pseuds/Origamidragons
Summary: “Thanks for the save,” the girl said, smiling over at Nami, warmer and realer than her earlier grin. “I was almost in a whole lot of trouble there.““Don’t mention it,” Nami said with a wave of her hand. “I’ve been in pinches like that in the past, I know the feeling.”“Still. If you ever need a favor, I owe you one. I’m Koala, by the way. Nice to meet you.”
Comments: 22
Kudos: 157





	Sunrise

The sun was slipping slowly from afternoon into evening, and a steady stream of people was moving through the market in the town square. The Strawhats had scattered across the small island while waiting for the Log Pose to reset- it was a short turnaround on this particular autumn island, so Nami could feel fairly comfortable letting her chaotic crewmates explore in the knowledge that even if or when they inevitably caused some trouble, they would be leaving by nightfall anyways. 

Sanji had set off to check out the island’s apparently famed apple orchards, and Nami had charmed him into babysitting Luffy while he did so; Chopper and Robin had gone hunting for books; Usopp and Zoro had remained on the ship, fiddling with ammunition and napping respectively last she saw. So she had some time to herself, and at the moment she was examining a pair of sunglasses at a stall full of miscellaneous accessories- the unpredictable weather of the Grand Line had been veering towards sunny recently, and so she needed a pair to let her cut through the glare of the light on water and see what laid ahead. 

That was a navigator’s job, after all. 

“So, five hundred?” she said, smiling charmingly at the vendor. 

“Ma’am, like I’ve been telling you, all of our products are priced at around a thousand, if you look at the tags-”

“I did,” Nami agreed, swinging the sunglasses around her finger. “And I’mtelling you that I’ll give you five hundred. I only have so much money, you know!” 

“Ma’am, please-” the vendor said, starting to look slightly overwhelmed, and she was opening her mouth to press her case when- 

“ _There_ you are!” a voice Nami didn’t know called from behind her, sounding obviously relieved, and a moment later there was a girl at her side, petite with a short bob of orange hair, looping an arm into hers. 

Nami blinked, slightly taken aback, and the girl beamed at her with eyes that screamed ‘ _work with me, please._ ’ “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Sorry, I got a bit lost, and I ran into some boys who really slowed me down- you know how it is.”

And- Nami did know. She didn’t know this girl’s story, exactly, but-

Once, when she was twelve and still slow and clumsy and unskilled, she’d fumbled a job, been caught climbing (slowly, too slowly) down from a pirate ship with her pockets heavy with gold, and at the shout of discovery she’d dropped the rest of the way to the ground before they could pull their guns, landing badly, and _ran_. 

She’d run until her lungs burned and her jarred ankle screamed and she couldn’t tell if the thudding she heard was footsteps or her own pounding heartbeat, and then she’d rounded a corner and crashed into an old woman, nearly bowling them both over. 

She’d frozen in fear, afraid she was about to have the town guards called on her and unable to run any further, but the old woman had only wrapped an arm around her shoulders and hustled her into her house, scolding her for playing in the dirt. Ten minutes later, as the pirates had thundered down the street without a sideways glance at the small, cheery cottage, the old woman had made Nami tea, and insisted she stay the night. 

(She’d snuck out before dawn, heart in her throat and shame hot in her chest, and fled.)

The memory flashed through her mind in the frozen heartbeat before she grinned at the other girl with not even a second’s hesitation, slipping into her role without a stumble or pause. “No problem! I was just looking for a new pair of sunglasses here, but you won’t _believe_ the prices at this place,” she said brightly, shooting a dark look at the vendor. 

The vendor threw up his hands, glancing between the two of them before visibly zeroing in on the other girl as a possible source of sympathy. “Please, miss, could you tell your friend, I can only sell these for so cheap! The prices marked are what they sell for! My goods are very fine, I promise you they’re worth it!”

The shorter girl raised an eyebrow at Nami, a smile playing at her lips. “Maggie,” she said, sounding on the edge of laughter. “Have you been bullying this poor man?”

“ _I’m_ trying to be reasonable here,” Nami objected. “I offered him a perfectly fair deal!” 

“Half the asking price!” the vendor said. “ _Half!_ ”

“ _Fine_ ,” Nami said like the word pained her. “I _guess_ I can give you seven hundred.” 

The vendor opened his mouth, closed it, visibly weighed the pros and cons of taking the loss versus continuing to haggle against Nami’s implacable will, and seemed to deflate. “Alright, fine,” he said, and Nami dropped the coins into his hand with a cheerful thanks before slipping the sunglasses onto her face. 

The other girl laughed softly at the exchange, ducking her head slightly as she did so, apparently to look at the wares laid out. Out of the corner of her vision, Nami saw a trio of shapes clothed in sharp military whites hurry into the square, glancing around watchfully. _Marines_. 

“Say, Nora,” she said to the other girl, grabbing a name off the top of her head just as ‘Nora’ had done for her. “You mentioned earlier you were looking for a new hat, right? How about this one?” she suggested, grabbing a soft purple bucket hat off one of the hooks that lined the stall’s struts and holding it out to the other girl. 

The other girl made a pleased noise. “Oh, you’re right! It’s perfect! How much, sir?” 

“Eleven- er,” the man started before stuttering when Nami glanced back at him, shooting him a look over the rims of her new sunglasses. “ _Eight_ hundred,” he said, looking defeated. 

The other girl smiled and fished the money out of a pocket in her skirt, passing it over with one hand and setting the hat on her head with the other in a movement that wasn’t quite hurried, but too quick to be entirely casual nonetheless. The hat was big and broad-rimmed, shadowing her features and covering most of her bright orange hair- which was why Nami had suggested it, and also, she was certain, why ‘Nora’ had taken to the suggestion so eagerly. 

Nami glanced back over her shoulder, aiming her head towards the clock across the square and letting the mirror sheen of her sunglasses disguise her line of sight as the marines hurried by just behind them, voices low and urgent. They didn’t even spare a glance at the two girls, and Nami grinned. 

“If you don’t need anything else, we should probably go meet up with everyone else,” she said. “We’re running kind of late. Don’t want them to worry.”

“Oh, I lost track of time!” the other girl said, her big eyes widening in a very convincing facsimile of surprise. She was really cute. Nami wondered if she had a boyfriend. “Yes, let’s go. Thank you for the discount, sir!” she added cheerfully as they started away from the stand arm-in-arm, waving over her shoulder at the vendor.

Together, they slipped out of the busy square easily, soon escaping down a much quieter sidestreet. As soon as the babble of voices had faded to indistinct background noise behind them, the other girl’s shoulders slumped in relief. 

“Thanks for the save,” she said, smiling over at Nami, warmer and realer than her earlier grin. “I was almost in a whole lot of trouble there.“

“Don’t mention it,” Nami said with a wave of her hand. “I’ve been in pinches like that in the past, I know the feeling.”

“Still. If you ever need a favor, I owe you one. I’m Koala, by the way. Nice to meet you.” 

“Nami. And I’ll keep that in mind,” Nami said. It never hurt to have a favor for a rainy day, no matter who it was from. She pulled her new sunglasses off and hooked them into the collar of her shirt before glancing over at Koala with a gleam in her eye. “So, what did you do to piss off the marines?” 

“Ah, I just needed to… borrow something from the marine base on this island,” Koala said. “My partner was _supposed_ to cause a distraction- he’s good at that- but I guess he must have gotten himself in some trouble. He’s good at that, too.” 

Nami laughed. “Oh, I know the type.” 

“Speaking of which,” Koala said, giving her a thoughtful sideways glance. “I take it you’re not terribly fond of the marines either?” 

Nami grinned. “Well, I mean,” she said. “I _am_ a pirate.” 

“Oh?” Koala said, looking intrigued. “Wouldn’t have thought it, to look at you. You’re awfully forthcoming, for such a good actress.”

Nami shrugged a little. “I’m not _terribly_ worried about you turning me into the marines.”

Koala laughed. “Fair enough. Guess I’m just not used to people volunteering information like that right off the bat. In my, ah, profession, people tend to keep to themselves.”

Nami raised a curious eyebrow. “Profession?”

Koala grinned and pressed a finger to her lips. “Sorry, secret. Unless you’re looking for a job.”

Nami grinned back. “Tempting, but I’ve already got a calling. I’m following my captain ‘till the end of the line.”

“Ah, it was worth a shot,” Koala said. “Speaking of which, what captain would that be? I haven’t heard anything about any major crews landing on this island.” _‘-and I really should have’_ went unspoken, but clearly implied.

“Mmm, you wouldn’t have,” Nami agreed. “Strawhat Pirates. We’re still pretty new to the Grand Line, though our idiot captain is already hard at work making a name for himself.”

Koala froze in her tracks, sudden enough that Nami was two steps ahead before she realized the other girl was no longer at her side and looked back, concerned. Koala was staring at her with wide eyes. “Strawhat- that’s- he’s the one who defeated Arlong in East Blue! Right?” 

Nami stilled. “...Yes,” she said slowly. That name still stirred up old hurt, old and ugly memories. “Why?”

Koala hesitated, then asked, “Can I meet him?”

Nami narrowed her eyes. “Why?” she repeated. 

“...To thank him,” Koala said. “I… sailed with Arlong’s old crew, when I was very young. His captain saved my life twice over. I… read about some of the sorts of things he was doing, in the article about his defeat. Captain Fisher Tiger would have been… so _disappointed_.” 

Nami blinked, taken aback. “Wait. Arlong’s… old crew?”

She’d wondered about where Arlong and his crew had been before Cocoyashi, of course, intermittently over the years, what they’d been doing, but for some reason the idea that they could have been part of a larger crew had never really occurred to her. Maybe it was because of Arlong himself. He’d never seemed, to her, like someone who would ever accept orders from anyone else. He’d reveled in his complete dominion over her island so utterly that she couldn’t picture him as subordinate to anyone. 

Koala nodded. “The Sun Pirates.”

“Sun,” Nami repeated under her breath, the word glancing off an old mystery buried deep in the back of her mind. “Was their symbol…” she trailed off, tracing a shape in the air with a finger, a sun ringed by jagged rays of light. 

Koala was already nodding again before she was done. “That’s right.” 

“I always wondered,” Nami murmured. “So many of them had it.” She’d asked Hachi once, because he was the least likely to hit her for asking questions, but his face had gone closed-off and dark, and he’d walked away without answering. “So… their captain…”

“Fisher Tiger,” Koala said, her voice slipping into something quieter, on the edge of reverence. 

Nami’s heart was thudding in her chest, and she wasn’t entirely sure why. It was nothing to do with Koala herself- the other girl had been nothing but friendly, and Nami _liked_ her. It was something much older and deeper than the two of them in that moment that squeezed her heart and clawed at her lungs, childhood questions she’d long since given up as unanswerable floating back up to the surface. 

During the late nights, hands bleeding and back and shoulders aching from hours and hours bent over the drafting table, eyes blurry from lack of sleep, the questions would run an endless loop around the inside of her head- _Why do you hate us so much? What did we ever do to you? Why, why, why-_

“Did Fisher Tiger,” she asked, lips numb, “hate humans?” 

Koala shook her head, sharp and immediate- then hesitated, a conflicted expression crossing her face. “I don’t think…” she said carefully, then trailed off before slowly saying, “No. He didn’t. Or… if he did… he tried very hard not to. The Sun Pirates had… suffered, at the hands of humans. Many of them were former slaves. But Fisher Tiger and most of the others were always kind to me, and he never allowed his crew to kill a human.”

Nami’s mouth was dry, and she opened her mouth and before she could stop herself she was saying, voice too tight and angry, “Arlong killed my mother.”

The words hung in the air, flat and brutal in their honesty, and Nami didn’t regret them even as Koala paled all at once and clapped her hands to her mouth. 

“I’m,” she said, voice quiet and shocked, “I’m sorry. I’m _so_ sorry.” 

Nami didn’t respond right away. She inhaled, and exhaled. Now that the words were out there in the air instead of ricocheting around inside her head, the pounding stress of the conversation had receded, leaving only the old familiar grief.

“Don’t be,” she finally said. “It was a long time ago.” 

“That doesn’t make it right,” Koala said, and it almost made Nami smile, the fire she could hear in the other girl’s voice, the anger on her behalf. 

“No,” she agreed. “It doesn’t.” She let the silence hang for a moment, and then said, “The reason Strawhat Luffy defeated Arlong was for me.” 

“Arlong came to my island when I was eight.” She started walking again, and Koala did as well after a moment of hesitation, following at Nami’s side and listening intently. “He demanded tribute from every person in the village. Fifty thousand beri for children, one hundred thousand for adults.” 

She still remembered those numbers. She would never, ever forget those numbers. 

“My mother had enough to pay for herself, or for my sister and me.” Nami paused, and breathed, and Koala listened, silent and understanding. “She chose our lives over hers. And Arlong shot her in front of us.”

She could still hear her own screams, and Nojiko’s, and the awful finality of the gunshot, but those things were far away, now, and for the first time she didn’t cry recounting them. 

“He had me work for him,” she said after a pause. “For ten years. Because he needed a cartographer. He thought if he had enough maps, enough knowledge of the seafloor and the currents and all their secrets, he and his crew would be unstoppable. I stole and lied and drew maps until my fingers bled for him because I was _stupid_ enough to believe him when he promised someday he’d let me buy my village back.”

She swallowed.

“He called me a member of his crew, but… he hated me. He hated all of us. And I always just wondered _why_.”

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting Koala to say, if anything. She wasn’t even completely sure why _she’d_ said everything she had, only that Koala’s words and presence had reawakened an old aching need for closure, for understanding, and she couldn’t stop the story from pouring from her tongue. 

What Koala said, eyes downcast and voice solemn, was, “Humans killed Fisher Tiger. And he died because he saved me.” 

“It was a long time ago, but, once, Fisher Tiger was one of the most wanted men in the world. And the reason was because he had dared to defy the World Nobles. He broke the chains of the slaves in Mariejois and let them free. Humans and fishmen alike.” Koala closed her eyes briefly, and the look on her face, old pain and old grief and old tired rage, was like looking in a mirror. “I was one of them.”

Nami startled, taken back despite herself. “You were-”

Koala nodded. “...I met him when I was eight. My home island was far away, and the people who had cared for me after I escaped couldn’t get me back there. They asked him to take me. And he did, even though humans had never caused him anything but pain. He took care of me, and brought me home, and helped me learn how to be a _person_ again.” 

She glared down at the dirt road beneath their feet. “But the adults in my village, my mother… they made a deal. With the marines. They told him where to catch Fisher Tiger, and in exchange, they got to keep their _stolen property_. No one told me. They didn’t want me to know. People in this world like living in ignorance so much… but one day my mother left a newspaper out. Celebrating Fisher Tiger’s death at the hands of the marines on my island, on the day he’d brought me home. It… it wasn’t hard to figure out, from there.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Nami said, after working her throat uselessly for a moment. 

“I know,” Koala said, with a tired little laugh. “But it sure feels like it, doesn’t it?” 

“Yeah,” Nami agreed quietly. “It sure does.”

She glanced over at Koala, and saw her looking back, and there was a kinship there, a commonality quiet and deep and fundamental, and despite herself she couldn’t help but smile, a little, sad and understanding, and Koala did the same. 

They walked in silence for a minute longer before Koala asked, “What was your mother’s name?” 

“Bellemere,” Nami answered, and even after so long the name still tasted like music. “Her name was Bellemere.”

“Bellemere,” Koala repeated quietly, and then nodded. “I’ll remember.”

And no one remembered Bellemere, no one but Nami and Nojiko and Genzo and the people of Cocoyashi, for all that she had been the best person Nami ever knew, and she had to duck her head and swipe at her eyes. Koala kept her gaze forward, giving what little measure of privacy she could provide, a tiny gesture that Nami appreciated nonetheless. 

“Thank you,” she said. 

The silence that fell then was comfortable and tired, wrung out and companionable, as they wandered side by side down through the quiet city towards the bay where the Merry was docked. The sun was low in the sky, edging close to the horizon, and shone orange on the waves in the distance. It would only be a matter of time before the log pose set again, and they could set off. 

_He taught me how to be a person again_ , Koala had said, and the words echoed in Nami’s head, reverberating like a bell. She remembered seeing her map room, the place where she’d been a tool and a resource and never ever a person, smashed to pieces from the inside out, seeing the drafting table she’d once been cuffed to falling from the window shattering on the stones below.

Yes, she thought she understood exactly who Fisher Tiger had been to Koala. 

There was a soft trilling sound from the pocket of Koala’s skirt, and she blinked in surprise and paused in her tracks, fishing a baby dendenmushi out of her pocket and picking up the reciever. 

“Sabo?” she asked.

“ _Koala!_ ” someone said cheerfully over the line in a tone that Nami had learned to associate with an incoming headache. “ _Slight change of plans._ ”

Koala immediately sighed and pinched her temples. “What did you do?”

“ _Remember my distraction?”_

“Yes, I remember it didn’t work well enough to keep the alarm from getting raised when I was in the commander’s office,” Koala said, voice dry as a desert.

_“Well, it worked well enough to_ very _effectively catch the attention of a visiting_ Vice Admiral.”

“Shit,” Koala said, tone shifting to concern and alarm. “Are you okay?”

“ _Worried about me?_ ” Koala’s partner teased. 

“I’d throw you to a sea king for ten beri,” Koala said immediately. 

The laughter from the other end of the line was almost familiar, until the voice sobered again, turning more serious. “ _I’m fine, since you ask, but our escape boat isn’t_.”

“What?” Koala said, her shoulders going tense. “How are we going to get off this stupid island now? The marines are looking for us!” 

Koala sounded _scared_ , and maybe that was why Nami said, almost unthinkingly, “You can probably hitch a ride with my crew.”

It was the sort of generosity she normally wouldn’t extend without a fee, but- she _liked_ Koala, who reminded her far too much of herself, and it wasn’t like it would be any inconvenience to her crew. Technically it would be Luffy’s choice to make, but she couldn’t imagine he’d object to having a couple new friends around for a few days.

Koala blinked, startled and hopeful, glancing up from the call. “Really?”

“Sure,” Nami said. “Just until the next log stop. We were planning on setting sail at sundown anyways.”

“ _Koala? What’s going on?_ ” 

Koala grinned down at the receiver. “Sabo, how do you feel about taking a ride with some pirates?”

**Author's Note:**

> okay so obviously there's a second half of this story, which is 'what happens when sabo gets back to the going merry.' it doesn't exist yet but hopefully it will eventually once i feel confident enough in my grasp on sabo's character to write it. 
> 
> this is set... between alabasta and jaya i guess? some point earlyish in paradise.
> 
> i didn't find a way to fit it in here but do you ever think about how koala and nami both had the marks of their slavery covered up with new symbols of their freedom because i can't stop thinking about it


End file.
